Balthasar Denner
Balthasar Denner (* November 15, 1685 in Altona, † April 14, 1749 in Rostock ) was a German painter.
Origin and youth
Growing up is Balthasar Denner in Altona, about two kilometers west of Hamburg. Altona was then (1710 ), with around 12,000 inhabitants, the second largest city after Copenhagen within the Danish state and distinguished himself particularly by granting religious freedom there. His father Jacob Denner (1659-1746) was a well known preacher of the Altona Mennonite, a professional dyer. His mother was Catharina Wiebe ( 1663-1743 ). Balthasar was the oldest of seven siblings and the only son.
As Balthasar was eight years old, he suffered an accident that caused him to limp all his life. The time of the lengthy healing he whiled away with drawing. He showed unusually adept at copying images with great accuracy.
At the age of eleven he was informed by the Dutch painter Franz van Amama. When his father for some time in Gdansk as a Mennonite pastor worked, Balthasar, where she studied in the oil painting.
In 1701, the family moved back to Altona. Balthasar, has become 16, joined the company of an uncle in Hamburg to learn the profession of a business person. There he worked for the next six years. In his free time he practiced on in the painting.
In 1707, at 22, Balthasar was admitted to the Prussian Academy of Arts, which had been a few years earlier, founded in 1696, the later King Frederick I ( Prussia). Under his rule, many artists and scientists held up in Berlin and the school was one of the best in Europe.
Career as a portrait painter
Already in 1709, at the age of 24, Balthasar Denner received his first important commission: he painted the portraits of Christian August ( uncle and guardian of Karl Friedrich, Duke of Schleswig -Holstein - Gottorp ) and his sister Marie Elisabeth, who later became abbess of Quedlinburg. The client was so pleased with the result that he invited Denner after Gottorp Castle in Schleswig to paint more portraits there. Here Denner realized in 1712 a large group portrait ( 178 × 138 cm ), showing 21 persons from the court of the Duke. It is now in Rastede castle. This large screen established the reputation of Balthasar Denner as a portrait painter who spread very rapidly.
As a result, he received until his death more than enough orders, copying down at the courts of Europe, the greats of his time. This includes your dukes and their families were also the Danish king Frederick IV (Denmark and Norway ) and Christian VI. , King August II (Poland), the Tsar Peter III. (Russia) and King Adolf Frederick (Sweden).
Apparently Denner sometimes confined himself in a picture his real specialty, the portrait introduce, and the rest, for example, figure, clothing, background to let finish by another painter, and occasionally by one of his talented children. The portrait of three children of the alderman Barthold Hinrich Brockes from 1724 carries on the back an inscription listing the parties involved: Denner painted in Hamburg, the heads of the children, Jacob van shed later in Vienna the body and garments, the background comes from Franz de Paula Ferg (1689-1740), the flowers in the hands of the children painted Franz Werner Tamm ( 1658-1724 ).
Family life and travel
In 1712, at age 27, Denner was a made man and was able to marry. With his wife Esther winter he had six children, five girls and one boy. From 1712 until his death in 1749 Denner traveled to his employers in Schleswig -Holstein, Lower Saxony, Hamburg and Hannover, Dresden, Amsterdam, Copenhagen and London. At times he was every year in a different place, sometimes he made several trips per year. He took the whole family. The children were musically gifted and entertained the great personalities who had to sit still for her portrait, with musical performances. Particularly gifted was the daughter Catharina, trained in music and painting, but already died in 1744. The only longer stays Denner made in London from 1721 to 1728 and in Amsterdam from 1736 to 1739.
That Denner in Hanover met many Englishmen and was invited from there to London, reminds us of the close ties between the two countries: King George I (Great Britain) came from Hanover and remained as a British royal Prince Elector of Hanover and Duke of Brunswick- Lüneburg.
Effect
That Denner was sought and appreciated greatly during his lifetime, is clear from the list of his customers. The nobles and wealthy families from all Northern Europe wanted to be painted by him.
A portrait also served on the documentation, had prestige, helped arrange marriages or manifest political claims. From the picture, the Denner 1740 from twelve years later Peter III. (Russia ) painted in Kiel, he had to make ten copies. One of them was sent to the court of Petersburg, as discrete memory of his claim to the throne tsar.
The portrait of an old woman brought the audience in Rotterdam and London against great enthusiasm. Contemporary critics presented the Mona Lisa equal. Was praised especially the amazing accuracy in detail, with every fold of skin, every hair was held. It is said that his portraits could be studied with a magnifying glass.
The portraits of Balthasar Denner be in art theory since the late 18th century to the negative example of a merely meticulously realistic painting, which therefore is unspiritual and inartistic. Corresponding remarks there by Johann Joachim Winckelmann, Johann Georg Sulzer, August Wilhelm Schlegel and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. The General German Biography of 1877 criticized: "Who but in the concept of a true work of art is still looking for an ideal moment and will not be satisfied with the slavish copy of nature, will touch these images little pleasant. There is absolutely no spirit in these heads, they do not talk, and the smooth, effeminate color reinforces the impression of the wax -like. "
Arno Schmidt said in a broadcast interview from 1952 with Martin Walser, the writer has the task to give the thought process of the people of his time with " Balthasar Denner shear accuracy " again.
District of Hamburg -Nord Barmbek a street is named after him.